


How Blue, How Beautiful

by Jtargaryen18 (snowqueen79), snowqueen79



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Captain America Reverse Big Bang 2019, F/M, Nebula is awesome, Sexual Content, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-17
Updated: 2019-06-17
Packaged: 2020-05-13 06:06:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19245349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowqueen79/pseuds/Jtargaryen18, https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowqueen79/pseuds/snowqueen79
Summary: When Tony Stark is returned to Earth following the horrific Snap, he's accompanied by an alien woman named Nebula. What starts out as a gentlemanly attempt to make someone feel welcome turns into a relationship no one saw coming. When Scott Lang arrives with an idea and a chance for redemption, will their unlikely relationship last? Or will they go their separate ways?Featuring the spectacular artwork of EmmaTheSlayer





	1. Chapter 1

Watching as Carol Danvers landed the ship in front of them, Steve blew out a sigh of relief.

For the first time since Thanos had snapped away half of the galaxy’s population, Steve Rogers felt like something like hope.

They had Tony Stark back and that was a big step in the right direction. He’d never tell his egotistical friend that, but having Tony back put them closer to victory. With him, just maybe they _could_  find a way to reverse the Snap.

Waiting outside the ship Carol Danvers had carried back to Earth, he waited for Tony to exit the craft.

Looking thinner and even a bit humble, Tony’s hazel eyes locked with his as he came down the ramp. They hadn’t talked since Siberia and they had a _lot_ to talk about.

Tony looked like he was going to say something to him but hesitated.

“Tony?”

Pepper came flying at his friend, strawberry blonde hair flying out behind her like wild ribbons. She hit Tony so hard, throwing herself into his arms, that he barely held them up. The couple whispered to each other in quiet tearful murmurs, neither had expected to see the other again.

Steve decided he could talk to him another time. For now, it was enough to know he was alive. Wanting to give them some space, Steve hung back for a couple of moments before heading back to the compound. The others out there with him did the same.

A movement on the ramp caught his eye. A blue alien woman had been rescued along with Tony and she weakly made her way out of the ship, not looking that steady on her feet. Afraid she would fall and thinking it would be best to have her looked over by medical, Steve walked around Tony and Pepper to the ramp.

“Could you use some help, ma’am?” he asked gently, holding out a hand to her.

The woman’s black eyes riveted on him like he was something to recoil from.

“I am not called ma’am,” she told him fiercely.

Her skin was blue and the metal accents at the side of her head suggested to him that she might even be part machine. He wasn’t one to judge. When Bucky had fallen from the train, they replaced his ruined arm with machinery. It hadn’t fundamentally changed who he was.

Dropping his hand, Steve nodded. “Okay. I’m Steve Rogers,” he told her.

Watching her stubbornly stumble down the ramp, he stayed closed, ready to catch her if she fell or passed out. She watched him out of the corner of her eye as if she thought he might attack her. When she reached the bottom of the ramp, he felt a little better.

“If it’s okay, I’ll take you to medical,” he explained carefully, following her as she stubbornly but slowly started walking away from him. “They’ll take care of any injuries you may have, get you something to eat.”

The woman didn’t stop, didn’t acknowledge him at all. But as they walked across the yard, she allowed him to pass her, realizing she didn’t know the way.

Steve led her into the compound to medical and took a step back as he watched her approach the door. The woman paused, turned those black eyes back on him.

“I don’t need their help,” she shot at him. "Or yours."

“Nebula?”

Tony’s voice drew her attention back into that white room with medical personnel and machinery. He motioned her in.

At least Steve knew her name now.

“It’s okay,” Tony said in a kinder tone from the table he was reclining on. “Let someone take care of you.”

Nebula seemed to exhale in something like defeat, but Steve could sense she didn’t entirely trust the situation. She took one tentative step towards an empty station where a small, dark-haired nurse eyed her in concern.

Stepping up behind her, Steve followed her towards the station. A small smile formed on the nurse’s face to see him with the blue woman. If he could put the medical staff’s fears to rest, they’d give her better care.

“Captain Rogers,” the nurse greeted, her badge giving her name as Susan. “Good to see you. How can we help your friend?”

“He is not my friend,” Nebula informed the same nurse.

“Okay.” The woman’s eyes widened, and she took a small step back.

“Good to see you too, Susan,” Steve greeted her. “This is Nebula. She’s not from around here. She was trapped with Mr. Stark in a spaceship for several days. Food and water ran out, the oxygen was about to run out too as I understand it.”

The woman nodded. Nebula was very human-like in form with a distinctive feminine shape. She was a different color and she had some metal parts. Outside of that, Steve couldn’t imagine her physiology was remarkably different than his own.

It was a little rough going at first and a couple of times, Steve had to turn around to avoid the two women see him about to laugh. Nebula was surly and suspicious, but she obviously didn’t think the smaller nurse was of any threat to her. After some explanation about IV fluids, the alien woman was resting comfortably on the table and getting needed hydration.

Her eyes were closed. Perhaps she’d even dozed off. Considering what she and Tony had been through, rest was probably the best thing for her. Glancing over to where Tony was being treated, with Pepper still hovering nervously about, Steve decided to go check on him for a moment.

“Where are you going?” Nebula asked as he made the first step.

Her black eyes were open and on him. Her expression was a curious blend of mistrust and fear.

“I was going to go check on Tony,” Steve explained. “But I can stay.”

With a curt nod, she closed her eyes again.

Steve grinned. _Well, okay then._

Pulling up a chair, Steve sat next to where she rested. It wasn’t a hardship for him to take out his phone, catch up on messages and the news. As he did, he kept stealing glances at the lady Tony had brought back with him.

He could still remember being a young man in Brooklyn, listening to the radio with Bucky and his friend’s sister one Halloween. They’d listened to Orson Welles’ infamous War of the Worlds broadcast that had sent some of their older neighbors into a panic, thinking the fictional news reports of aliens were real.

Eighty-some odd years later, come to find out, there was other life out there in space. Steve’s first exposure to it had been Thor and his brother Loki. Okay, technically they were gods, but it wasn’t a lot different.

When Thor had arrived on the battlefield of Wakanda, he’d brought with him Groot, Steve thought he was a mobile tree but still wasn’t clear on that, and a raccoon that talked and dressed as a human named Rocket. That one had survived the Snap and Steve _was_ curious about him. Rocket came from Earth originally, right?

Steve wasn’t about to ask. Rocket was almost as snarky as Tony Stark and that was saying a lot.

A couple of hours had passed when Bruce came over, attempting to introduce himself to Nebula. It was a good thing the IV fluids were almost finished. Bruce was excitedly looking over the blue woman like he’d just gotten a new science project.

Nebula was glaring at him like she was thinking about decapitating him.

“I see the staff haven’t done any scans for you yet,” Bruce seemed to get his interest under control when he noticed her defensive posture. He took on a more professional demeanor. “I’d be glad to take care of that for you.”

Nebula’s glare was pretty intimidating. She moved closer to Steve’s side of the table she’d been resting on.

“I am clearly not armed,” Nebula informed him in a menacing tone.

Bruce’s gaze darted to Steve’s and back. “Okay… Maybe tomorrow then? It’s… medical scans. Just making sure there aren’t any internal injuries. That’s all.”

Nebula huffed, pulling the needle for the IV fluids out of her arm as she did. “I’m fine. I don’t need your scans,” she informed him.

With that she was off the table, heading straight out of medical. She seemed a bit better than she had come off the ship, but Steve found himself following closely behind her.

Just as he suspected, she was heading back for the ship.

“Ah, Nebula?” he called out.

She stopped just before she reached the ramp, didn’t turn around.

“I think we can find a place for you to rest that would be a lot more comfortable than that ship,” Steve explained. “We can get you something to eat too if you like. If you trust me.”

On that note she turned to face him, glaring him down. “I don’t trust you.”

Steve held his hands up defensively. “Okay, I understand. Offer is still there.”

Blowing out a long-suffering sigh, she dropped her gaze. “Fine.”

Steve led her back into the compound, not looking back to see if she followed him. She was.

“Friday?” he called for Tony’s AI. “I need a room for our guest.”

“Of course, Captain Rogers,” the AI’s response was immediate. “There’s a spare room on your own floor. In 9C.”

Steve knew just where that was. “Can you have something sent up for our guest to eat?”

“Right away,” Friday replied.

“Thanks,” he replied.

When they got off the elevator on Steve’s floor, he led her to the apartment that was three doors down from his own. No one had lived in it so far.

Opening the door for her, Steve smiled. “Get a good night’s rest. Someone will bring you something to eat in just a few minutes.”

While she was trying to keep up what he was guessing was her signature level of ferocity, Steve could tell she was tired. She walked into the room and didn’t turn back around. She didn’t say a thing.

Not knowing what else to do, Steve muttered “night” and got ready to close the door to head to his own place.

“Yes, it is,” she mumbled.

Shaking his head, Steve closed the door before she could see him grinning at her.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning when what was left of the team met, things didn’t go quite the way Steve had hoped.

Perhaps it was the twenty-one days he’d spent in space thinking he wouldn’t be returning, but Tony was upset. He wanted nothing to do with confronting Thanos and said he didn’t have any information to offer them. He wanted out, telling them that they could have won if Steve hadn’t gone underground.

Steve didn’t try to defend himself. Hell, maybe Tony was right.

They all watched silently when Tony left with Pepper, telling them he wanted no part of their plan.

Even without Tony, they had to do _something_. When Carol Danvers told them she thought they could win this time, Steve took heart. Maybe she was right. They had to try.

When locating Thanos was mentioned, it was Nebula who stepped forward. Turns out she was one of the titan’s adopted daughters. Something told him she’d suffered a great deal at her father’s hands.

Today she seemed a little more subdued than she had last night. She still had to be pretty weakened from what she’d been through, but she stepped up to do the right thing. Steve admired her for that. She knew just enough for Rocket to pinpoint the location of the titan. When Carol suggested the team should go and confront him, Steve backed her up. In a couple of hours, they were on their way.

Accepting that there were people and other life forms from space was one thing. Actually _going_ to space? That was another matter. The team piled into Rocket’s spaceship and that in itself was an experience for Steve. Plus, they had no idea of what they were walking into.

In the end, it had been terribly anticlimactic. Thanos had used the infinity stones again only this time to destroy them. The titan wanted to ensure no one could come behind him and undo his “good work.”

Steve felt sick to his stomach as he listened, realizing at that moment they had to accept defeat. They wouldn’t be able to bring back their loved ones. They wouldn’t be able to put the world to rights.

Thor easily killed the weakened titan and they went home. No one really had anything to say.

When Steve couldn’t sleep later that night, he got up and threw on some exercise clothing and headed for the gym. The part his choices played in what had happened to half of all life in the universe preying on his mind, he decided to work himself into exhaustion. He just wanted to escape through sleep for a while.

Steve realized she was following him as soon as he passed her door on the way to the elevator. He didn’t know Nebula well, but he didn’t feel threatened. She was hurting along with the rest of them, having learned Thanos sacrificed her sister, another of his adopted daughters, to get the Soul Stone. That meant she’d loved her sister and wasn’t as emotionally detached as she tried to portray herself.

Taking the stairs, he was impressed that she was easily able to keep up with him. They reached the gym and he just did what he intended, getting ready to lift some weights. As he was loaded weights onto a bar, he saw her walk around him in his peripheral vision.

“What are you doing?”

Steve gazed up at her. “I can’t sleep so I decided to come down here and see if I can workout until I’m so tired I can’t stay awake.”

Her brows drew together in her confusion, her black-eyed gaze moving over him. When he stretched out on the bench, she watched as he lifted the bar from the stand and began his reps. It was almost a little unnerving how still she could stand.

“What good does that do?” she finally asked.

Steve placed the bar on the stand. “Makes you stronger. Builds muscles.”

Those black eyes moved over his arms, his chest. Nebula shook her head.

“That serves no purpose,” she informed him.

“Helps me stay in shape,” Steve pointed out. While the serum could probably keep him in shape all by itself, that a discussion he didn’t want to get into with her. At least not until she became more familiar with Earth. If she even planned on sticking around. “What do _you_ do?”

The question took her by surprise. “We spar.”

“We do that too,” Steve told her, sliding out from under the weights and sitting up on the bench. “Want to do that? Want to spar with me?”

A corner of her mouth lifted, and she shrugged. “It wouldn’t be much of a challenge.”  

Steve couldn’t help but chuckle at that. “You’re pretty confident, are you?”

When he rose from the bench, she took a step back, her eyes rounding a little at that. _No, no._ He didn’t want her fear. He did, however, like the cocky side to her. Sparring with _that_ Nebula? Well, he thought he might enjoy that.

“Okay,” Steve said finally, leading her to the mats. “You prefer training with weapons? Or you want to just spar hand to hand?”

Planting herself in front of him, she seemed to consider his question. “I don’t need a weapon to put you down.”

Oh, he wanted to _see_ this. Steve hadn’t seen her fight before. For all he knew, maybe she _could_ take him down.

“Hand to hand it is then,” he told her. “You ready?”

Nebula’s gaze moved up and down him, her slender figure tensed and looking ready. Her nod was brief and then she came at him.

Steve had to put some effort into dodging her blows, avoiding her kicks. He was easily twice her size and she came at him with a ferocity that only came from battle experience. When she managed to land a kick to one his thighs, it _did_ hurt but he was able to weather it. It surprised her, but she locked down that emotion and continued her assault, backing him across the mat. That sort of emotional control? That wasn’t easily taught.

Since she clearly knew what she was doing hand to hand, Steve decided to test her in other ways. He tried looking off in other directions to see if he could get her to flinch, to stop and look. Not once did she take the bait, keeping her focus solely on him.

Steve grinned, reaching the edge of mat. It was time put _her_ on the defensive.

Nebula was able to dodge his blows better than she could block them. She deflected one of his fists with a hand, but he could swear his knuckles met metal. She was quick on her feet, skirting around him and not letting him lead her.

Dropping into a crouch, he took her off guard with a sweep, taking her legs out from under her and dropping her on to the mat. He had her shoulders pinned only a beat later as she glared up at him indignantly.

“You’re good,” he told her, only slightly winded where her breathing was labored. It reminded him of what she’d just gone through with Tony. She still needed to rest and recover. “You should probably take it easy though.”

With a growl, she punched him in the jaw, knocking him backward and away from her. She was on her feet in a second, ready to continue.

“I will rest when I choose to,” Nebula informed him.

Pulling himself and rubbing his jaw, Steve studied her. She had a good right hook. “Okay.”

Picking himself up, Steve let her come at him full throttle. Her anger gave more power to her blows, but it also caused her to sacrifice her technique, made her less effective. Anger was a weakness she had.

They sparred for quite a while and Steve stuck with just letting her come after _him_. At first, it seemed to piss her off more. It wasn’t that he thought he could easily beat her. He wanted her to build confidence.  Even as he watched her tiring, she wasn’t backing down. Wasn’t allowing herself to back down.

If it were a real life and death situation, fine. But sparring? Steve called it, earning a dark glare from her even as she stood holding her side.

“Need a medic?” he quipped with a grin.

“No, I do _not_.” Her gaze ran him up and down and she shook her head. “What _are_ you? I would have been able to defeat Quill with little trouble.”

“Quill?”

“My sister’s partner,” she spat. It was obvious that whoever Quill was, she didn’t care for him. “He’s half human. And full humans are even weaker. But you’re something else.”

Steve thought about that while she eyed him suspiciously.

“I _am_ human,” he told her. “But I’m also enhanced.”

“Enhanced?”

Steve smiled. Someone who _didn’t_ know his entire story. That didn't happen a lot.

“I was part of a military experiment,” he explained. “A serum was used to make me stronger, faster… Bigger.”

Nebula considered that. “Were you smaller before?”

“Yeah.” Steve chuckled. “In my original form, you would have been able to beat me in about five seconds.”

She walked to the edge of the mat and he followed, her hand still holding her side in a way that had him a little concerned. He’d gotten in a pretty good shot there.

“Were you given a choice?” she asked finally. “Did you choose to be part of the experiment? Or was it done to you?”

Steve could tell the answer to that was important to her. “I had a choice. I chose to do it.”

Nodding, she began slowly walked toward the door of the gym. Steve decided to follow her, staying behind her as she made her way to the stairs.

“Why did you ask me that?” Steve wanted to know.

She stopped but didn’t look back at him. “I am also enhanced. I _wasn’t_ given a choice.”

When he didn’t know what to say to that, she continued walking. Her slow speed had Steve concerned that she might have overdone it.

“Who… enhanced you?” he had to ask.

“My father.”

“Thanos?”

“Yes.”

When they reached the landing on the second floor, he herded her to the elevator. That she didn’t protest was very telling.

“Did he…” Steve was struggling for a way to form his question. “The metal? Your hand and the…” Steve pointed to the metal accents to the left side of her face.

The glare she turned on him had him regretting the question.

Holding his hands up, he said, “I’m sorry. Sorry. It’s just… why?”

Nebula’s gaze dropped at that and she leaned against the wall of the elevator.

“Father raised both Gamora and me to be assassins,” she explained. “He made us spar, fight for hours on end. Gamora was always a better fighter. She won. Every time… When I lost, he’d replace a part of me… He said to make me better. Stronger.”

_Jesus._

Steve couldn’t understand how anyone could be so cruel. But then the bastard went to great lengths just to eliminate half of all life across the galaxy so he must have truly been an evil bastard.

“I hated my father,” Nebula stated when the elevator arrived at their floor. “I’m glad he’s dead.”

“So am I,” Steve admitted.

“He killed Gamora, tortured me, and caused the loss of all of Gamora’s friends.” Nebula walked to the door of her apartment.

“I’m sorry,” Steve told her. “We all lost. I lost several friends. And it really doesn’t feel good that we weren’t able to stop him… To have to say that we _lost._ ”

Opening her door, she seemed ready to just go into her apartment and close the door. He didn’t know how people did things where she was from.

“Are you going to be okay?” Steve asked, earning him a glare.

“I am fine,” she bit out.

Steve grinned. Her reaction actually made him feel a little better.

“If there’s anything you need,” Steve told her, “ask Friday. You can also come get me.”

Turning to face him, her gaze moved over him slowly. Steve had no idea what she even thought of him. Did he look strange to her? Did she disapprove?

Did she find him attractive?

“What did you look like in your smaller form?” she asked finally.

Nodding, he said, “Stay there.”

Dashing to his apartment, he quickly found what he was looking for and came back.

Nebula didn’t appear to have moved. She took the small, black and white picture from him when he handed it to her.

She studied that picture hard.

“I prefer your warrior form,” she announced after a moment, handing the photo back.

“Yeah, everybody else seems to agree with you,” he said with a grin. He kind of liked that. _Warrior form_.

“I’m sorry for what… Thanos did to you,” he said before heading back to try and sleep. “You didn’t deserve that. You’re an impressive warrior in your own right. I doubt you ever needed his help.”

With that Steve headed for his apartment, a little surprised that he didn’t immediately hear her close the door already.

“Thank you,” she said so quietly he couldn’t have heard it without his enhancement.

Steve caught her gaze as she slowly went into her own room and closed the door.


	3. Chapter 3

Over the next several weeks, they found some sense of normalcy. Natasha unofficially took over coordinating what was left of the team. Nebula and Rocket had stayed on at the compound in those early weeks and Steve had come to enjoy the time he spent with each of them.

Particularly Nebula.

The day after he’d sparred with her, he’d gone to check on her, to make sure he hadn’t hurt her with that body shot.

She’d surprised him at the door, ready to go sparring again. Then it was expected each day they were both there. It just became their routine. At first, Steve appreciated it because things had been lonely since the Snap. After a while, well, he realized it was a little more than that.

Each day he watched her become a better fighter. It wasn’t long until she could hold her own fully with him. Steve had to say he was proud of how much she’d learned, and she’d already been a worthy fighter in her own right, her so-called father be damned.

Today Nat had come down and decided to spar with them, going one on one with Nebula and giving him an opportunity to observe. He tried not to grin because Nat’s scissor takedown just frustrated the hell out of Nebula at first. She wasn’t sure how to block that. And oh, he understood. Nat herself had to show him what one could even do about that particular move after they’d become friends.

Still, Nebula kept at it with a stubbornness that he had to admit matched his own. Her form was beautiful really, her movements quick and graceful. Well, graceful with a ferocity you didn’t see in humans. She threw her entire being into her attacks, no hesitation at all. It was both a bonus and a weakness.

“Stop doing that,” Nebula growled at Nat when she took her down to the man with her scissor move.

“As long as I can effectively use it against you? No,” Nat told her casually. “I’ll keep using it.”

With a growl, Nebula charged her and for the first time in the hour they’d been at this, she was able to get in a body shot that leveled the gorgeous spy. Flat on her back and winded, Nat grinned over at Steve.

“That was good,” she told Nebula. “See?”

“I don’t need your approval,” Nebula stated flatly.

Yep. Steve had learned _that_ the first week in training with her.

“I see.” Nat grinned as she rose to her feet, ready to call it a day. “It was a good spar.”

Nebula still hadn’t exactly picked up on “human niceties” as she called it, but she nodded. It was something. She would have growled at Nat the first week.

When she looked at Steve expectantly, he rose from the mat where he’d been watching.

“I think I’m done for the day too,” he told her. Yeah, it was thirty minutes less than they normally did but he was hungry. And he’d had an idea as he’d watched the women fight. “Want to go get something to eat?”

She seemed to consider it, her black eyes studying him carefully.

“Fine.”

After he’d gotten showered and changed, he waited in the hall outside her door. Normally it was like she knew the minute he’d arrived but today, he waited a few minutes.

It was different.

Finally, she stepped out and he led them back down but they went by the food court, heading for the garage instead. Walking up to his SUV, he motioned for her to get in on the other side.

“Where are we going?” Nebula asked.

“Out,” he said with a grin. “It’ll be good for you to get out of the compound.”

Out ended up being drive-thru takeout and riding a few miles beyond the compound to an area Steve enjoyed visiting when he just needed to get away from everything.

Nebula looked puzzled as he parked at the edge of the field. It ran along a hillside leading up into the woods. It was visually beautiful, at least to him, and peaceful. He could always relax here and hoped that maybe she’d like it.

Oddly, most of the time Steve felt the same way around her. He could relax. Nebula wasn’t a conversationalist and that was fine. Most people talked too much for Steve anyway.

She was also completely without guile. If she was angry with him, which happened a lot in the first few weeks, he knew. He knew _why_. There was a simplicity about being in her company that he appreciated.

“Why are were here?” she asked when he shut off the engine.

“Thought you might like to see something besides the compound,” he explained climbing out with their meal. Going around the rear door, he pulled an old quilt from the back seat.

Steve trekked up the hill, knowing the perfect place. Perfect shade, nice view. She followed him. He knew she would. And she didn’t speak as he found that perfect spot, laid out the quilt for them and sat down.

Handing her the sandwich he’d ordered for her, he set about getting himself situated and handed her one of the drinks.

Only she wasn’t paying attention. Her gaze was scanning the area around her. Knowing her, she was probably scanning for the best exits, where she could acquire weapons. It was the way she’d been taught.

Oddly, her expression was different from her normal warrior face as he liked to call it. She was gazing around at everything in fascination. Honest to God fascination.

She _liked_ it. Steve’s heartbeat picked up.

The view of the city down in the valley mostly held her attention.

“You like it?” he asked after a moment.

“I’ve never seen a place like this before,” she said still looking around. “It’s quiet… Too quiet.”

Just like Nebula to expect a trap.

“It’s always like this,” he explained. “It’s a nice place when you want to get away from other people or… you want to just relax, be out of reach for a while.”

She frowned her gaze on him now. “Out of reach?”

“Yeah.” Steve unwrapped his sandwich as he thought about what he wanted to say. “You get tired of people always needing something, wanting you to do something. It’s nice to be able to remove yourself from that once in a while.”

When she nodded, Steve was surprised.

“I loved my sister,” Nebula explained. “All I ever wanted was a relationship with her… When the chance finally came…”

Steve’s heart sank as he waited for her to continue.

 “I couldn’t get her and her idiot friends to ever be silent,” Nebula replied. “They _talked_ and _sang,_ I think that’s what they called it _,_ endlessly. Sometimes I just wanted to be lost in deep space just to get away from them.”

Steve laughed hard at that. Her expression had just been so adorably serious when she’d said it. He tried to cut it off when she just stared at him like he was a moron. After a moment she did something that took him completely off guard.

She smiled. Nebula had a certain beauty about her when she smiled. Sure, she looked different from human women. She was blue with some metal accents and didn’t have hair. But her features were delicate, pretty.

“This place would have been nice to visit then,” she finally said.

“Yeah, that’s exactly it.” Steve took a bite of his sandwich realizing how much he regretted ever wanting to get away from the people who were gone now. “It’s funny. As much as I told myself that I needed my alone time because Sam constantly told jokes and tall tales, and Wanda talked about Vision, I’d give anything to have them back. You know?”

Nebula blew out a deep exhale. “Yes, I do know… I lost my sister.”

“If you don’t mind my asking,” Steve said carefully, “what happened?”

Her steady black eyes looked sad as she placed her sandwich in her lap.

“Thanos sacrificed her to acquire the Soul Stone,” she explained.

Steve didn’t understand. “Sacrificed her?”

“On Vormir,” Nebula explained. “Father sent us out to find the Soul Stone so he could… Gamora learned of its location. I was the only one who knew that, and she didn’t reveal the location to me. Then she destroyed the map so no one else would be able to find it.”

“But she told Thanos where it was, right?”

Nebula’s head bowed. Steve wasn’t used to her demeanor being so… sad, vulnerable even. If she dropped the conversation, he was okay with it. He didn’t bring her here to bring her down.

“She did tell him,” she finally answered. “But only because he… He’d captured me. He used me to get her to tell him the location.”

_Bastard._ The more he learned about Thanos, the more his hatred of the miserable, dead titan grew.

“So he tortured you?”

Her gaze flew to him, her eyes narrowed. But when he kept his expression benign, just wanting to listen her defenses dropped again.

“Yes.”

“She must have cared about you,” Steve reasoned. “She told him to get him to stop, right?”

“She did,” her voice was suspiciously softer. “She didn’t know about the sacrifice. I doubt he did either. I learned about it while I was out looking for the stone. I never got the location, but I got the lore surrounding it.”

Steve just ate, listening. It was the most she’d ever spoken to him and really did want to know what had happened to her sister. As survivors, it was important that they listened to each other. That they shared what they’d been through. Aside from Rocket, no one else really tried to communicate with her.

Until Nat had joined them earlier. And Nat in time would love her. Like him, Nat got tired of constant conversation. He thought Nat would probably really appreciate Nebula once she knew her better.

“The Soul Stone was kept on the planet Vormir,” Nebula explained. “It’s supposedly a barren planet and the stone is said to be guarded by a man with a red skull for a face.”

_That_ got Steve’s attention, remembering an old enemy from the war.

_Nah, it couldn’t be._

“The person trying to acquire the stone can’t just take it,” Nebula explained. “They have to give up what they love most.”

Steve shook his head. “Of course. He would have had to give up either you or your sister.”

“No, not me.” Nebula dropped her gaze, picking her sandwich back up. “He loved Gamora. Not _me_. He would never have taken me.”

Steve drank from his water bottle shaking his head. “Then he was a damned fool.”

He expected a retort, some curt remark to that but she surprised him in not saying anything. Just nodded her head slightly.

“When Thanos found the rest of our group, he came for the man with the time stone,” Nebula went on. “Mantis told us he was mourning. We almost got the gauntlet from him then. My sister’s idiot boyfriend Quill allowed him to keep the gauntlet and get away from us. But not before he let us know… She…”

“I’m sorry,” Steve told her. “It was not only a horrible way for your sister to die, but it was a horrible way for you to find out about it.”

“It was the only thing he ever did that really surprised me, Steve,” she went on.

“You had a terrible father,” Steve said. “He didn’t deserve either you or your sister.”

“No… he didn’t.”

They finished their lunch, enjoying a comfortable silence when Nebula surprised him yet again.

“You lost people,” she said simply.

“I did,” Steve told her, thinking it was entirely fair for her to ask him that. “I lost some of my very best friends.”

Nebula titled her head as she gazed at him. “Family?”

“Bucky,” he explained. “He’d been my best friend since childhood. He was family. But no. The rest of my family? They’ve been gone a long time.”

“A long time.” Nebula kept studying him and Steve grinned, knew a question was coming. “Why does Natasha refer to you as an old man?”

Steve studied her, enjoying the breeze from where they sat. “Because it’s true. I’m just over a hundred years old.”

He waited for a reaction to that since she was one of the few he’d encountered who didn’t know his story. But he didn’t get one. Maybe they counted time differently where she was from.

With Nebula, a lot of the usual worries just didn’t seem to apply. It was… nice.

When it was time for them to head back, she helped him put all the trash back in the bag as he gathered up the blanket. The sun shone brightly off the metal that decorated different points on her head, her body.

Nebula really was beautiful in her own way. It had him wondering if she’d ever let him sketch her.

Tucking the blanket in the back seat of the SUV, he was surprised to see her waiting by the driver’s door for him. Did she mean to drive them back? Did she know _how_?

“Thank you for… this,” she said simply before wrapping her arms around him, shocking him by pulling him into a hug.

Steve recovered quickly, hugging her back. When she eased away from him, her expression was one of confusion.

“I thought that was how you said thank you here,” she told him.

Steve grinned at her. He just couldn’t help it. The light reflecting off of her dark eyes caught his eye, had his heart skipping a beat.

“It is,” he told her.

Then he did something more surprising than her hug. Taking her face in his hand, he leaned down and kissed her gently on the mouth.

Steve braced himself because Nebula was just unpredictable enough to decide that pissed her off and take a swing at him. It was worth the risk. Instead, she leaned into the kiss, her hands sliding over her chest.

Steve had expected… he didn’t know what he’d expected. Her lips were warm, soft. Her body was also soft. As he wrapped his arms around her slender frame, he realized that she felt the same as a human woman.

He kept the kiss sweet and after a couple of moments, he ended it when she didn’t seem to be in a hurry to do so. He couldn’t help the smile on his face, realizing he’d wanted to do that for a while now.

“You ready to go back?” he asked.

With a soft smile, she nodded and walked around to the passenger side and climbed into his SUV.

Steve had absolutely no regrets as he drove them back to the compound. Finally, something wonderful had happened in their desolate, post-snap world.


	4. Chapter 4

His afternoon out with Nebula had left Steve with a lot to think about.

Did he have any regrets? None. He was already accustomed to the curious looks he got around the compound because Nebula was always right there with him. No, Steve didn’t give a good damn about what anyone thought.

Steve was constantly in the company of a beautiful woman. She wasn’t from Earth and she was blue. Both were positives as far as he was concerned.

But Nebula was from a different culture. Hell, a whole different planet. How did relationships work where she was from?

Steve ultimately decided to let her advance anything that happened between them. Just to be safe.

The next few days passed as if nothing had happened and Steve just went along, curious to see if that kiss had made any difference to her. Maybe it hadn’t. Maybe he was giving himself way too much credit.

Three days later, some HYDRA splinter group was causing trouble in Florida, Steve agreed to go check it out, telling Nat he was taking Nebula with him.

They’d reviewed files on the group in the jet on the way, Nebula seeming her normal self. The group was trying hard to infiltrate a building belonging to a large financial institution. Steve and Nat suspected they were trying to grab identifying information for people who didn’t survive the Snap. With half the population gone, it would take such companies years to determine who was alive still and who wasn’t.

When they landed at the large corporate center, Steve glanced over at Nebula and smiled. “You ready for this?”

Nebula just nodded, readying her gear and smiling.

“Friday, what are we walking into?” Steve asked the AI before the left the safety of the jet.

“About two dozen agents, Captain Rogers,” the AI responded. “Mostly armed with semi-automatic weapons. They seem to have incendiary devices too to help them break into protected vaults in the building.”

Nebula titled her head at the term.

“Explosives,” Steve explained to Nebula. “Friday, pull up a schematic of the building and show them to me.”

Before them, an electronic screen formed in the arm, showing the inner levels of the tall structure. There were two groups. One on the second floor and one of the seventh.

“We’ll go in the exit back here,” Steve pointed to it on the display. “You take the second level and I’ll take the upper one.”

Again, Nebula just nodded. The look of delight in her black eyes was a little disconcerting. Steve rarely went into any mission _looking_ for a fight. Nebula looked like she couldn’t wait to get in there.

“You got everything?” he asked.

“Yes,” she told him and quick as a cat she was off the jet and making her way to the building.

Steve scrambled to catch up with her, but she’d disappeared into the bowels of the building before he ever reached the door.

“Be careful,” he whispered into the coms they were.

“ _You_ be careful,” she said back in a low voice.

Steve grinned as he hit the stairs and ran up to this floor.

He didn’t find the group he faced to be particularly competent. He didn’t do a head count, but he was able to dispatch the majority of them pretty easily. Heading back for the stairs, he decided to go help Nebula when a larger man blocked his path. Unlike the other, inexperienced lot he’d just taken out, the worn warrior before him looked like he just might know what he was doing.

Steve engaged him in battle, trying to make quick work of him but he was surprised to find himself struggling a little. The man fought a little like Thor, heavy-handed and all-or-nothing in style. Even a couple of good shots with his shield hadn’t taken the man down.

Steve had thought he was getting somewhere when the man yelled, and Steve saw the electrical current at his back. The warrior dropped to his knees and there stood Nebula. She’d taken him down with Nat’s wrist-mounted weapons. While she had him down, Steve gave him another hit with the shield to knock him out.

“I had him on the ropes,” he told her.

“No, you didn’t.”

Steve laughed and when she didn’t get the joke, he laughed just a little more.

SHIELD agents were on their way to handle clean up and they made their way down the stairs to head for the jet.

They’d just reached the first floor when the shots rang out. Steve was shoved hard out of the way and he wheeled around at the sound of Nebula’s enraged yell. She’d been shot in the leg and she was really pissed off. Charging the man with the gun, Steve’s heart flew into his throat.

She’d taken the shot for him. And she was putting herself in the line of fire.

“Nebula!” Tossing her his shield, she used it to hold off the bullets until she reached the gunman. By the time Steve got there, there were two men dead at her feet.

But she was bleeding.

“Come on,” he hauled her up over his shoulder and taking the shield. “We’re getting you to medical.”

Her entire form was tensed up. “Put me down.”

“Nope.”

Steve called for a medic from the leader of the SHIELD unit there and he followed Steve up onto the jet. It was a real testament to how far they’d come that the medic watched as Steve carefully placed her on a seat but otherwise didn’t react to the fact that she was obviously from somewhere else.

Using advanced medical scanners, the medic took a look and decided the injury wasn’t so bad. He set about removing the bullet as Steve watched.

Nebula had taken a bullet for _him_. He probably would have fared better than she was if he’d been the one shot. The last thing he was going to do was say that to her though.

Now as he watched her fight not to react to the injury, he got an idea of what exactly she must have gone through in her life. If she lost to her sister or sustained an injury, her father punished her, mutilated her. Steve would think someone in that situation would just look out for themselves, not selflessly try to protect others.

It said a lot about who she truly was. And he learned more about her by the day.

Once the medic determined that she’d be okay for the trip back to the compound they got going. Steve noticed that she was quiet as he focused on flying the jet.

“You feeling okay?” he tried.

“I’m fine,” she told him.

“Thank you,” Steve said slowly.

Glancing over his shoulder, he saw her staring out the window. He couldn’t read her expression, but it looked like she was a million miles away.

“You’re welcome,” Nebula said finally.

 

***

 

The next morning, Steve stopped at her door as he always did. He half expected her to try and go sparring. He already had something in mind to say if it came to that. Instead, he brought her breakfast and knocked on the door.

Thanks to his enhancement, he had good hearing and a suspicious crash from deeper within the apartment got his attention.

“Friday,” Steve called from out in the hallway. “Could you let me in so I can help Nebula? She’s not going to authorize it.”

He just knew she’d tell the AI she was fine.

“Override password is required, Captain Rogers,” the AI informed him.

“Capsicle,” he muttered, shaking his head.

The AI unlocked the door and he found Nebula trying to crawl out of her bedroom.

“How did you get in here?” her black eyes narrowed on him.

“Being a captain has its privileges,” he told her, setting the box with their meal on the coffee table and kneeling by her side. “How’s your leg?”

“Fine,” she growled, pulling her legs around carefully to sit in the floor.

“Can I see the wound?” Steve asked carefully.

“Why would you want to?” she demanded.

“Because you got shot on my watch and normally, you’re a lot more graceful than this,” Steve explained. When she shot him a look, he grinned.

“Please?”

Blowing out a frustrated exhale, Nebula grabbed the hem of the nightshirt she wore and hauled it up to show him the wound mid-way up her thigh. The wound was a gaping hole on the slightly scarred flesh of her smooth blue thigh. It looked much worse than yesterday. Seemed considering her weakness, shaking, and inability to walk across the floor that her physiology was very similar to his own.

“That looks infected.” Steve was honest with her. “We need to have someone from medical take a look at this.”

“I’ll live.”

“I’m sure you will,” Steve told her, placing a hand on her forehead and finding it hot under his palm. “But wouldn’t you rather be comfortable as you recover?”

“Comfortable?” she asked but her eyes were slightly glazed.

“Yes.” Steve scooped her up from the floor, carrying her back in to her bedroom getting her settled in bed. “Friday, please send Dr. Cho or Dr. Banner to use here please.”

“Yes, Captain,” the AI answered right away. As he got the pillows plumped up behind her and helped her to sit up.

“Dr. Banner is on his way,” the AI announced.

Steve wasn’t surprised it was Bruce, knowing he was eager to study life from beyond earth. He also knew his friend was sensitive enough not to make Nebula feel uncomfortable.

They didn’t wait long. Bruce carried in a couple of medical bags, taking Steve’s seat next to Nebula on the bed. He started out by using a scanner Steve hadn’t seen before. It was almost comical watching Bruce’s eyes widen as he looked over the results.

“Wow, her circulatory system is really similar to ours,” Bruce said to Steve.

“But the wound?” Steve wanted to get him back on track.

“Yeah, there’s an infection,” Bruce’s expression sobered a bit. “I just need to figure out how to treat it. While her physiology is similar to ours, I can’t assume I can treat her as I would a human patient. Hers is definitely a humanoid race though.”

“Only more advanced,” she added.

“No doubt,” Bruce admitted.

“I am Luphomoid,” she explained.

Bruce was typing wildly into his StarkPad.

“So what are we going to do?” Steve told him. “Her forehead was hot.”

Bruce checked her temperature and nodded. “I pulled up her chart from medical the night she and Tony arrived. I really wish I’d thought to get her vitals while she was healthy and unharmed, so I’d have an idea of what they normally are.”

That would have been nice.

“Well, we’re going to have to start very basically,” Bruce started. “We’ll move you into a medical room for monitoring.”

“No,” Nebula said flatly.

“Why?” Bruce frowned.

“I will not display weakness before the rest of _your_ race,” she stated flatly.

“Thing is,” Bruce explained carefully, “I don’t know how you’re going to react to the drugs I’m going to prescribe. If you had a bad reaction, that could escalate fast.”

Steve thought about that for a moment. “What if I stayed with her to monitor?” he asked Bruce.

“If you’re willing to do it,” Bruce said. “And if she agrees to that.”

Nebula’s gaze flew to Steve, her gaze as worried as it ever got. Slowly, her features relaxed and she nodded.

“Fine,” she said. “For how long?”

“Long enough for us to figure out a form of treatment that your body will accept as beneficial and that effectively removes the infection,” Bruce went on. “A couple of days. A week at the most.”

Nebula’s expression was hard to read but Bruce got to work on his StarkPad devising a plan.

“I’m going to start with an antibiotic,” Bruce explained. “We’ll administer through IV because I don’t know how it would be absorbed on her stomach.”

Steve just understood that they would treat the infection, which Bruce cleaned up and inspected, and that he’d need to watch closely for any adverse signs. He was a light sleeper, so he thought he’d do a good job. Medical staff had arrived with the IV supplies, much to Nebula’s vexation, before he was done.

“This again?” she grumbled.

“Yes, just to play it safe.” Bruce set it up, inserted the needle. “The antibiotics are in the IV fluids so once that’s done, they’ll be administered.”

The list of symptoms to look for made Steve’s head hurt a little. He trusted his gut. If something didn’t look right, he was calling for help.

Before too long, once Bruce and medical staff had left, he’d warmed up breakfast and carried it in to her on a tray. She dug in and it made him feel better that she was eating. He ate with her, stretching out on the bed next to her once they were done and flipping through channels on her TV.

Nebula was quiet but he knew her mind was going a mile a minute.

“Is this okay?” Steve asked.

Nebula nodded. “Why are you taking care of me?”

Steve’s gaze shifted to her. “Because I care about you… And _most_ of the time you’re fun to be around.”

The slow smile that spread on her face made him feel a little better.

He just hoped that Bruce’s treatment was going to work.


	5. Chapter 5

For the next three days, Nebula didn’t feel her best. She didn’t understand why Steve had to stay there with her, to hover over her. She’d had much worse injuries before between her father, her time with Ronan the accuser, and other battles she’d been in.

She’d started to question Banner's knowledge until finally he lucked upon something that took the heat out of her body, helped the wound at her leg heal. It left her weak, which she hated. But if she needed anything, Steve was right there.

It was annoying.

It was… _interesting_.

When Banner finally claimed the last medicine he’d used worked, she’d fallen into a deep, much-needed sleep. Apparently, she’d slept for many hours and she welcomed those painless hours of relief, even if Steve would wake her here and there to see if she needed anything. He’d even brought Banner up there to check on her at one point.

It was annoying because she’d wanted to sleep.

Still, he _cared_. No one aside from Gamora ever had.

Gamora had a half-human companion. Nebula had to wonder what she’d think of Steve if she were still alive.

Steve was a _lot_ more attractive than Quill. That was a given. More intelligent. A solid warrior that didn’t rely on blasters.

Yes, Gamora would have liked him, she decided.

In his quest to help heal her, she thought he’d only left her apartment once to go get things he needed from his own. And he made sure Banner was there when he did. He’d tucked his clothes away in drawers in her bedroom, reordered items her kitchen. Steve Rogers had made himself right at home.

He had food delivered often which was incredible to her. There’d been so many times in her life she’d gone without food. Having sustenance arrive at any time of the day or night on demand? It was curious. She hadn’t eaten a lot during her illness but after the fifth day, she agreed to it just so Steve wouldn’t ask her every other hour. 

They had a good setup on Earth. Being stuck here, for the time being, wasn’t so bad.

The wound at her leg looked better. Her fever backed off. She was eating.

“You feel better?” Steve asked her during that first meal she had after recovering.

Nebula nodded.

It was two more days before she was back to anything like normal. They watched a lot of what he called television. At first, he tried to show her old, colorless shows about some primitive war he’d fought in many years ago, but she really wasn’t interested in those. Nebula for the life of her, couldn’t understand why they’d fought the way they had. It made no sense.

There’d been a NASA channel that she’d found interesting and she listened to that a few hours to see if anything was said about the Kree or the Skrulls. Maybe even some word from one of her race. But there was nothing and Steve grew bored with that after a time.

They compromised.

There was a show called Survivor that they both enjoyed. Nebula could predict each time which fake warriors would be eliminated first. Steve had picked out the winner of each season. At least for the six seasons, they’d watched so far.

The plan for the evening was to watch more of that show. Finishing a shower, she put on a clean nightshirt and padded out of the bathroom. Steve was stretched out on the other side of her bed like he belonged there.

He looked _good_.

“How does it look?” he asked when he noticed she’d returned. It took her a moment to realize he meant her wound.

Nebula climbed onto the bed next to him, pulling up the hem of the shirt to show him. It looked significantly better now. Taking her usual space next to him, she glanced at the screen.

“Begin.”

Which was Steve’s signal to start the next episode. He’d gone for a run earlier and she knew he felt better for it. It had been the first time she'd been alone in over a week. She thought she'd like to see something besides the walls of her apartment too.

“In the next couple of days,” Steve said, “want to go back up on the hill to have lunch?”

It was almost as if he’d read her mind. She gazed at him carefully. She felt more energy than she had in days. She felt restless…

“Yes,” she said calmly. “When?”

Steve smiled. “Any time you like.”

He was trying to seem relaxed and invested in the show they’d watched together, but she sensed the change in him. She liked it.

Quill had been her first exposure to humans and more than once she’d found his way of approaching any form of intimacy repulsive. She didn’t like what he called jokes or the way he pushed physical boundaries. She never understood what Gamora saw in him.

Not to mention they may have prevented Thanos from executing the Snap if Quill hadn’t lost his composure…

When Nebula moved closer to him on the bed, her heart began to accelerate. He’d made it clear he wasn’t going to leave her alone and he _was_ here in her bed.

When she threw a leg over his waist and straddled him, she had his full attention. His blue eyes widened on her but he didn’t tense, didn’t try to move her.

She smoothed her palms over his chest, impressed with the muscular wall he’d somehow managed to fit beneath the strained white shirt. Her nightshirt rose up high on her thighs, planted on either side of his slim waist, and she felt him stir beneath her.

_Ah, so it’s not just me._

When one of her small hands slid up to stroke his cheek, his beard, Steve sighed into her touch. Nebula liked that. _Promising._

“I liked the kiss,” she whispered, wondering why he hadn’t mentioned it or tried it after that.

Steve smiled. “Me, too.”

And just like that, her lips were on his, her hands holding his face. Nebula relished the feeling of him beneath her, liked the taste of his lips. He seemed a little unsure of what to do next and seemed happy to let her lead.

_Good._ Just the way she liked it.

When he slid his hands up her back, it just encouraged her. Tilting her head, Nebula deepened the kiss, sliding her tongue into his mouth and drawing out a moan from him. Steve kissed her back but gave her control. He felt so good and it had been _so_ long for her.

Nebula drew a chain of kisses lightly across his jaw to his ear, nipping lightly at his lobe with her teeth. His hips shot up unwittingly and Nebula moaned into his mouth, ground down on him.

_He felt very good._

Grabbing the hem of her nightshirt, she broke the kiss and pulled it up and off her body. The way he stared at her went from curiosity to darkened lust in an instant. His heated gaze gave her confidence, made her want him even more.

When he went to pull off his own shirt, it was anything but graceful and it had her laughing. Color flooded his cheeks as he laughed with her, unable to move her from her perch the entire time she helped him wrestle it off. She was rewarded with a perfect view of all that pale flesh. Like her, he was covered in scars. For a human, he was _beautifully_ formed.

His blue eyes smoldered as her hands smoothed over the solid wall of his chest, over his abdomen. His breath came fast as he let her explore him, with her hands, with her lips.

Steve rolled his hips under her again, the heated length of him pressing up into her.

Oh, she knew he was eager. But she wasn’t going to make it easy for him. Nor was she going to give up control.

The thrill of taking this warrior, of owning _him_? That would be special.

Nebula continued exploring his beautiful upper body with her mouth, with her hands until he was gasping beneath her, unable to keep his hips still. One of his hands she captured in her own, slid it up to her breasts. The low rumbling from deep within him as his hands began to explore her had her libido growing fangs, had her melting above him.

While his touch was nice, she wanted more. Moving down his body, Nebula gripped the waistband of the gray pants he wore, taking them off to reveal the rest of him to her hungry gaze. Nebula wasn’t disappointed. His lower body was as powerful as the top and well…

She couldn’t wait to get her hands on him. Taking him in hand, she enjoyed the way he cried out in surprise, in pleasure. The size of him was pleasing and she smiled. She hadn’t counted on a human man to be so well equipped. Maybe she was starting to see what Gamora had seen in Quill.

Even though Quill was no match for Steve.

And Steve was nothing like Quill. He hadn’t run from his people. He led his people. They _loved_ him.

Maybe she loved him too…

When she got her mouth on him, his hands began scrambling for anything he could clutch. The bedding, her shoulder. When one large hand settled on the smooth surface of her head, she moaned around him before taking him to the back of her throat. She loved the way his body tensed beneath her, the way he fought off his release to enjoy her mouth a little longer.

“Stop,” he finally got out.

Nebula stopped in an instant, not liking the spike of fear in her heart that told her might be rejecting her.

Keeping him in her hand, she was immediately put at ease by the desire in his gaze.

“I don’t want to…” Steve was fighting to breathe. “I want to be inside you… Please…”

As elegantly as she could manage, she crawled up his body, removing the modesty covering they called underwear as she went along. Straddling those slim hips, Nebula nearly drooled in anticipation as she held the generous length of him up, aligning him with her entrance. Then, slow as she could manage, she began to sink down on him.

Nebula was pleased with the burn, the stretch. Steve was easily among the bigger males she’d ever taken into herself. She liked the way he filled her, the look of awe on his face. The emotion in his eyes had her heart squeezing in her chest.

Did humans not share themselves for release? Why was he looking at her with such reverence?

Leaning down to claim his lips with her own as he slid into her limits, she had to ask.

“You have shared this with someone before,” she whispered against his lips. "Yes?"

“Just… just one other time…” he managed, thrusting up hard into in a way that had her core clenching around him.

Nebula shouldn’t have been pleased with his answer, but she was. His current lifespan was well beyond that of a normal human. She’d researched it. And he’d only shared himself with one other?

Well, he was in for a treat, she decided.

Planting her hands on his chest for leverage, she began to move on Steve. With his hands on his hips, he didn’t guide her efforts so much as he lent her his strength and it was appreciated it. She wasn't back to full strength yet. Still, she was going to make this so good for him.

Starting out with easy movements, Nebula began to slide him in and out of her channel, rotating her hips as she went along. It was so satisfying the way his hands gripped her hips, the way he thrust up to match her movements. It wasn’t long before she began to increase her speed, to push herself down on him to give herself a slight touch of pain, to push up the incredible pleasure she was experiencing.

Steve thrilled her. He had the strength to dominate her if he wanted to. She wasn’t fully healed. She couldn’t have stopped him and wouldn’t have wanted to if he'd taken over. Here was a male who knew he _could_ dominate her but who admired her strength, relished it, as much as his own. It had her tightening around him, fighting off her own finish.

“Nebula,” he gasped out. “You feel… so good…”

“I know,” she told him, picking up her pace.

And she rode him hard, tightening her core, locking her thighs around his body while he used his hands to hang on to her. When she leaned down to kiss his mouth, he seemed to love that. His length hardened inside her as his strokes gained power.

When one hand slid over to her slit to explore her folds and search, she was on the verge of her release. She placed his fingers exactly where she wanted them. He knew exactly what to do and he worked her with a finesse she’d never experienced before. Slowly, easily, he took control from her as release broke over her like an exploding star. Nebula cried out into the room, her hands clawing paths into the firm muscle of his chest as he growled out his own release and they moved as one pulsing unit on the bed.

Collapsing onto the bed beside him, Nebula struggled to catch her breath.

She saw it in his face, held up a hand to stop him as he pushed himself up on one elbow.

“Do not ask me if I’m okay,” she warned him, tired of that question. “I think I just proved I am.”

The bastard sat up until he had a clear view of the wound anyway, his fingertips gently touching it.

“Can I clean it up and bandage it for the night?” he asked, struggling for breath as much as she was.

“If you wish.”

“I wish,” Steve told her. “I want to rest a minute first.”

Wrapping an arm around her form, he pulled her up and against him so that her head lay on his chest. The pounding of his heart filled her ears and she was proud. She’d done that to this fierce warrior.

Nebula didn’t understand the need of humans to hold each other so close for so long after coupling. Still, she felt relaxed. She didn’t mean to drift off to sleep in Steve’s arms, but she did.


	6. Chapter 6

Five human years went by and during that time, Nebula served the Avengers and Steve. Rocket went out to explore the Earth and on occasion, she’d visit locations with him. But she was never gone long. She always came back to the Avengers compound. To Steve.

Now that time had passed, she had come to understand the nature of Gamora’s relationship with Quill. Yes, she missed time in space and some of the adventures. But life here with Steve? Being his lover was one of the best times she ever remembered.

She never went hungry. There was no torture, no pain.

The relationship she enjoyed with Steve was everything she’d ever hoped to have for herself one day. Being with him made her happy.

And then one day it all changed.

Another human, he called himself Scott Lang, arrived one day to tell them all about the Quantum Realm. He was believed to be dead but he returned and brought with him the possibility they could use that realm for time travel, to go back in time and try to stop Thanos before the snap ever occurred.

She listened in toon the talks, sitting between Steve and Banner who was now green and much larger. _Way_ more attractive even though she was completely loyal to Steve.

Nebula almost wanted to ask if they could go back before Thanos got his hands on the Soul Stone. Maybe they could save Gamora too.

Steve quickly became obsessed with the idea, wanting what they all wanted – their loved ones back. She waited patiently at the compound as a handful of them went to talk to Tony Stark who had already told them solidly that he wanted nothing to do with their plans regarding the snap.

Steve explained that during the five years that had passed, Tony had gotten married and had a daughter. His concern was in not changing things as they were now but bringing back those they’d lost to the current time. They’d talk for hours in bed about concerns, fears. Steve loved her into exhaustion to calm his mind and Nebula let him take what he wanted from her.

She wanted him to be happy. She wanted to help him.

After that, Tony Stark became obsessed with time travel and devised the means for them to attempt to go back in time and gather the infinity stones and undo her father’s work. Nebula was being sent back with Rhodey, who they sometimes called War Machine, to retrieve the Power Stone.

The elaborate plan they put in place was both a great success and a failure. The failure part fell squarely on Nebula’s shoulders. Thanos detected her presence and captured her, used her memory to learn of the Avengers' future plan. Sending a past version of herself to the future and back into the plan, Nebula screamed with rage. Thanos would undo all of their plans, hurt her newfound friends.

Hurt Steve.

Nebula had fallen in love with Steve at some point since she’d arrived with Tony Stark on Earth.

Left with a past version of Gamora, all Nebula could do was explain what had happened, tell her how they could defeat Thanos. Try to convince her of the happiness she’d found with Quill in the future. If Nebula pulled Gamora from the past, it was a way to continue her existence. She needed her sister.

After some convincing, Gamora released her and they made it forward in time to arrive at the final battle. The first thing she and Gamora did was hunt down past Nebula before she ruined everything. While Gamora wasn’t sure how to handle the situation, Nebula had no qualms about taking out her former self. She had no idea what that did to her own timeline but after a couple of minutes, she figured out she didn’t eliminate her own existence.

It was time to do battle. With Thanos.

Their so-called father fought hard and nearly won. Steve led the Avengers, with the Snap reversed it turned out to be a formidable force, and the fight was furious. In the end, Thanos was eliminated along with the entirety of his army.

_Good riddance._

The Avengers suffered losses. They lost Natasha Romanoff in retrieving the Soul Stone. Nebula wanted to suggest to Steve that they go back in time to bring her back. It had worked to get Gamora back. It was worth a try.

They’d lost Tony Stark too and Steve took it hard.

Nebula accompanied the team to the funeral, pleased when Steve introduced her to Bucky, Sam, Wanda, and several others who’d been restored. It was a somber occasion and she’d tried to stay in the background, to let them mourn the loss of their friend. Tony Stark had meant a lot to their team. She understood.

In the days that followed, Nebula didn’t see as much of Steve. He came in later each night. A few nights, he’d been eager to share intimacy with her. Afterward, he’d explain how the day went, the challenges they faced with bringing everyone back into a world that had moved five years past them. There wasn’t a lot she could do to help but she offered. Steve knew she was there.

Several nights after that, Steve came back later in the night. He’d climb into bed and just fall asleep at her side.

She knew there were plans to build another time machine because the infinity stones had to be restored to where they were taken to keep from messing up more timelines. Steve was busy helping with that. At least, that’s what she told herself when she saw him less and less.

“Nebula,” Rocket caught her near the food court one day. “You got a minute?”

They decided to grab lunch and talk.

“We’re heading back out for space,” Rocket explained. “Now that Quill, Drax, and the gang are back, let’s get out of here. We’ll go back to doing what we do best.”

Nebula nodded, listened.

“Come on,” Rocket said carefully. “I’m sure it was fun while it lasted. But your thing with Cap? Well, it was a temporary situation, you know? He got his people back. You got _your_ people back. Time to move on. He’s human. Quill being half-human is bad enough. You’re probably only a few weeks from being bored out of your fucking mind.”

It was hard to be bored when she didn’t really see Steve anymore.

“I’ll consider it,” Nebula told him.

It was almost comical the way Rocket’s shoulders dropped.

“Do more than consider it,” he demanded. “Fucking go with us. You belong in space. Not here with Captain Stick-Up-His-Ass.”

That caused her to crack a smile.

Nebula decided to tell Steve about their conversation, to see what he thought. To see if he’d even care.

Going back to her apartment, she ate and waited. She went to bed.

Steve came in late, only a few hours before dawn. He thought she was asleep, so he just climbed in bed next to her, curling up behind her.

So she thought.

“I know you’re awake,” he told her, pressing his lips to her neck.

“I’m awake,” she whispered.

“The time machine is almost finished,” Steve explained. “I volunteered to take the stones back to where we found them in time. Tomorrow. We don’t want to mess up timelines any more than we already have.”

Nebula sighed. “Let me go with you,” she offered.

“We don’t know if we got the time machine right,” he offered. “Tony wasn’t here to oversee what was done. To test it. Without him… we’re taking a really big risk.”

“I understand,” she said, her heart thumping in dread in her chest. “You’ll come back?”

“That’s the plan,” he explained. “If I don’t… I want you to be happy, Nebula. I want you to keep living a life where you are free to do what you want and make your own calls. I’m proud of you. I’m so proud of how far you’ve come in the time I've known you.”

Freedom was nice. But what made her happy was Steve.

And Steve hadn’t made up his mind that he was coming back to now? To _her._ Maybe he didn’t feel the same about her.

He’d never said he loved her.

When she smoothed her hand over his chest, he stopped it with one of his own. Lifting her hand to his lips for a kiss, he sighed. “I’m tired. When I get back.”

If he came back.

He didn’t want her anymore?

Steve fell asleep within minutes after that.

Nebula stared out into the darkness of the room, knowing what she had to do.


	7. Chapter 7

Steve woke up alone in Nebula's bed.

Disoriented in the early morning hours, he turned on the lamp at the bedside

“Nebula?” he called.

The first thing he noticed was the framed picture of them together was gone. Natasha took the picture on her phone on their first New Year’s Eve, right after the Snap. As a present, he had it printed, framed for her.

A quick look through her drawers found them empty.

Steve’s stomach dropped.

Where was she?

Had he said something wrong? Now that everything had been reversed did she want to get back to space? Did she miss it?

He knew he’d been putting in a lot of hours to help on the time machine, but they were all concerned with possible consequences if they didn’t get the Infinity Stones back as soon as possible. He knew he hadn’t been with her a lot. He'd make it up to her.

If he could find her...

Had she thought he was ending things?

When his phone hummed, he snatched it from the table, hoping it was her and that there was some explanation.

It was Bucky.

“You ready to go, pal?”

_No. I don’t know where Nebula is._

“I’ll be down in just a few minutes,” he told his oldest friend.

Maybe Nebula was down there with them. He scrambled to shower, to get ready. When he reached the bottom level, he looked around. Only finding Bucky and Sam watching him in confusion.

“What’s wrong, Steve?” Sam finally asked, his expression concerned.

“Have you seen Nebula?” Steve asked.

Sam and Bucky exchanged a glance and his heart dropped.

Bucky rose from where he was sitting, approaching him with a sympathetic expression on his face.

“She, ah, she left with Rocket and Quill and the lot of them,” Bucky explained. “They left just a few minutes before you walked in. She asked us to tell you… goodbye.”

Steve was stunned. What had he done wrong?

“See? I told you something was off,” Sam walked up.

“You two… were really… an item?” Bucky asked, looking confused.

“Yeah, we really _are_ ,” Steve replied, trying to keep the anger out of his voice. “Were… _Fuck_.”

“I told you she was leaving him,” Sam elbowed Bucky hard.

Bucky dropped his head. “I’m so sorry, Stevie.”

“What happened?” Sam asked. “From what little I’ve seen since I’ve been back, you guys looked happy to me.”

“If I knew,” Steve was barely holding on, “why would I be asking where she went?”

Scrubbing a hand through his hair, he shook his head. How was he going to do this mission? His mind was all over the place. She’d left him.

Nebula was _gone_.

Preparations went forward and Steve allowed himself to be checked, dressed. They met and all went over locations and times. Even Clint stopped goofing off, and Steve was truly happy his friend had his family back, to ask. “Are you okay?”

When the time came for Steve to get ready to deploy, he wasn’t sure he could do it.

Bucky seemed to sense it. They’d driven out to the location, set up the machine, and tested it the best they could without Tony.

Sam appeared ready to say something, but Bucky held up a hand and pulled Steve quietly off to the side. They were near the quiet flow of the river.

“When’s the last time you talked to her?” Bucky asked.

“Last night,” Steve muttered. “This morning. Whatever time I got in.”

“Did you _talk_?”

“A little.” Steve was struggling to think of what was even said. “I told her that I’d volunteered to take the stones back and tried to… I don’t know. I wanted to be honest and prepare her for the fact that if the damn thing doesn’t work right, I might not make it back.”

“Uh-huh,” Bucky’s gaze locked with his. “What _exactly_ did you say? Me and you both know that you’re real good at screwing up your words with the ladies.”

Steve huffed out an exhale as Sam slowly approached.

“I told her the time machine was finished,” Steve explained, trying to remember. “I told her I volunteered to take the Infinity Stones back because we didn’t want to mess up the timelines.”

Bucky nodded patiently. “And then?”

Steve’s mind scrambled. “She asked if I was coming back.”

“How did you answer _that_?” Bucky pressed him.

Steve started to realize where the problem had occurred. “I told her that was the plan. Then I told her if I didn’t come back, that I wanted her to be happy...”

“And did you specify _why_ you might not make it back?” Bucky glared at him. “Did she know it was because we’re not Tony fucking Stark and we might not have gotten it right? Or was it open to interpretation? You know, that _maybe_ you meant if you decided not to come back, to go be happy because you didn’t give a fuck?”

Steve felt sick.

“I didn’t make that distinction, no.” Steve shook his head. What was he going to do without her? “I can’t just send for her, Bucky. I have no idea how to reach her. She’s gone…”

Bucky held up a hand. “Maybe not. Hold up a minute.”

As always, Bucky was there, trying to take care of him.

“You’re already going back in time, right?” Bucky threw out there. “Maybe you should make one more stop and fix that, huh?”

Steve stared at Bucky hard for a moment, ashamed of himself that he was so tired and careless that he’d not taken care in his conversation with Nebula. Bucky was right. He struggled when talking to human women. Communication with Nebula wasn’t always easy and he hadn’t cared enough to get it right.

But Bucky was right. He _did_ have a chance to fix this. Just one chance.

Squaring his shoulders, Steve was ready for his mission.

“I’ll be right back,” he told them, the confident Captain back in spades.

“What did you just do?” Sam hissed behind them. “What if he doesn’t make it back because he’s all distracted?”

Bucky grinned. “If he thinks he can get his girl back, he’ll nail the rest of it. I guarantee it.”

“Hope you’re right,” Sam told him.

Steve grinned as he got ready to go.

He knew just what he had to do.

 

***

 

_The night before…_

Nebula waited until Steve fell asleep before she climbed out the bed. He was so tired he didn’t even move as she pulled herself free.

Quickly as she could, she grabbed everything she wanted to take with her, shoved it into a bag and got ready to go to Rocket’s apartment and wait with them until it was time to leave.

The last thing she grabbed was the image of Steve and herself, deciding she wanted to remember this. _Him._

She should have known what they had wasn’t real. It was just convenient. When he had his people back, he didn’t need her anymore.

Well, Nebula had someone back too. She’d help Quill track down Gamora who’d fled not long after Thanos’ defeat. She wasn’t sure she’d try to help him win her sister’s heart again, she still didn’t like him.

Nebula just knew that she couldn’t stay _here_.

Grabbing her bag, she took one last look around.

“Where are you going?”

Steve startled her, emerging from the bedroom and wiping at his sleepy eyes.

She had to remain strong.

“I’m leaving,” she said coolly. “I’m going to help Quill find my sister.”

“I thought you wanted to stay here,” Steve took a couple of steps closer, “with me.”

Nebula lifted her chin. “You seem to be content in having your people back. I’ve seen little of you. I got my sister back. I’m going to find her.”

Steve strategically placed himself between her and the door. “I’ll go _with_ you. Just let me get back from returning the Infinity Stones.”

“You weren't sure you were coming back,” Nebula reminded him of what he said.

“I know,” Steve dropped his head. “We’ve been working around the clock on that thing and just hoping we’d get it right. I’m sorry I volunteered to go and take that risk, but you understand why I had to do it.”

Nebula did understand.

“But I didn’t mean making a _choice_ about coming back,” he explained. “Tony Stark build the first machine and none of us left here are… him. I meant if I _survived_. I should have said that. There’s no way I’d choose not to come back to you, Nebula. I’m glad you’re in my life.”

Nebula’s heart broke out of the ice that had surrounded it.

“I have a good feeling that this mission will work out just fine,” Steve went on, moving closer to take her in his arms. “Let me get back and we can find your sister. We can do whatever you want.”

Steve kissed her breathless, pulling her tightly against him and enjoying the rapid pounding of her heart.

“Just _stay_ ,” he whispered in her ear.

Nebula eased back from him, the happiness she’d experienced with this man returning in waves to make her feel lighter, happy.

“You said you wanted me to meet Gamora,” Steve reminded her.

“I did,” Nebula told him.

Grabbing his neck, she pulled him down to her and kissed him with everything she had. Steve was all too happy to let her lead that kiss, to let her pull him into the floor. She knew she should have let him sleep more to get ready for that mission. But she wanted him. Badly.

 

***

 

In an instant, Steve was back on the platform of the time machine, breathing out a huge sigh of relief. He’d made it. He’d returned the damned Infinity Stones _and_ Mjolnir. He _thought_ he’d set things right with Nebula.

Bucky and Sam waited a few feet away and Bruce looked more relieved than he ever had to see Steve there.

“So glad it worked,” Bruce told him. “Everything go okay?”

“I hope so,” Steve told him, looking around.

Bucky grinned at him, tipping his head in another direction.

There was an old wooden bench by the water and Nebula sat there in her jeans, blouse, and jacket. She seemed fascinated by the sounds and sights of life around the river.

With a grin, Steve strolled over to her on the bench and she grinned at him when he reached her.

Those black eyes were full of mischief.

“I know what you did, Rogers,” she said slowly but unable to keep the underlying mirth off her face.

“Rogers, huh?”

She only ever called him that when she was mad at him.

“Last night was very nice,” she explained, “but you made a lot of noise getting back into your time travel suit. I’m surprised you didn’t wake up the other you sleeping in the bed.”

Steve felt his face go up in flames. Why was he surprised? Nebula could always see through him. It was one of the things he loved about her.

“You caught me,” he said.

“I matter that much to you?” Nebula stood, approaching him. When her hands smoothed over his chest, he breathed out a sigh of relief. He knew she wasn’t angry when she did that. “You would come back through time to make things right?”

“I would never have forgiven myself if I’d lost you,” Steve admitted. “I love you, Nebula.”

“I’ll stay with you,” Nebula whispered. “I love you too.”

They shared a kiss by the tranquil beauty of the river, and he tried to ignore the catcalls and cheers of his two idiot friends a few feet away.


End file.
